


death is an ocean on all sides of our lives

by Ede



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-21
Updated: 2013-02-21
Packaged: 2017-12-03 04:29:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/694135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ede/pseuds/Ede
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lu Ten survives the invasion of Ba Sing Se. His father does not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	death is an ocean on all sides of our lives

Lu Ten comes home feeling paralyzed from the throat down, as if every inch of him went cold with Father's body.

Lu Ten's Firebending was his father's pride; his tactical mind a gift from the ancestors; his easy smile the talk of the palace. His hands, big and smooth, led fire and men alike, pulled him along to greatness and presented his family with yet more honors and grand accomplishments. 

Much of Lu Ten has been left at the walls of Ba Sing Se, though, and these days, he is little more than a hollow shell wearing a very clever mask.

Sometimes, when Zuko runs up to him with an eager smile, demanding a sparring match or a story or even something as small as a hug, Lu Ten feels a little less broken, a little less empty. Zuko is not his youngest cousin, but he is Lu Ten's favorite, was Lu Ten's father's favorite nephew, and sometimes, if Lu Ten is very still and calm while he sits with Zuko, he can remember similar afternoons, years ago, when Zuko was still small and silent, and his father had held them both on his lap, smile stretched across his face. Zuko - who is nowhere near Azula's level of skill in _anything_ , be it Firebending or manipulation – is clever enough to understand the effect he has on his cousin, and attaches himself to Lu Ten's side.

Ursa watches her son and nephew sit by the turtleduck pond, and smiles sadly when she watches Lu Ten stroke Zuko's hair. 

She understands loss.

Then discussions about who will inherit the throne begin, and Grandfather clearly wants it to be Lu Ten, and Uncle Ozai clearly has other plans, and Lu Ten is so _tired_ of it all. Tired of the stares and the whispers and the arguments and the subtle manipulation and the cold, lonely place at the table where his Father should be sitting.

So he leaves.

He travels – Uncle Ozai can _have_ the damn throne, it doesn't matter. Nothing matters. He can barely care for himself, let alone an entire country. It's for the best, he tells himself, pushing aside thoughts of Uncle Ozai's face in firelight, of the way Zuko looks at his father – half in awe and half too frightened to move. Uncle Ozai has always been clever and canny, with a mind for politics, he reminds himself, and ignores the whispers that the Princess Ursa has fled the palace, that Grandfather is dead and Uncle Ozai is Firelord at last. 

Lu Ten is only twenty four, and he is already tired to the bone, already empty of hope and joy, because why bother? Because his father is _dead_ , dead and buried and now, now Lu Ten has no one, has nothing but a scheming family and a war he no longer has the heart to fight in. 

Lu Ten wanders the world for three years, and tries to fill the hole that was his heart.

And then he receives word from home – just a quick message, unsigned, attached to an exhausted hawk; _Zuko banished, come home at once_.

He's not sure what he'll do when he gets there, not at first. Not until he sees Zuko's face, ruined and raw, the stink of charred meat so thick in the air that it might never come out. Not until Zuko looks up at him with one good, heartbroken eye, half his face swaddled in bandages, and all Lu Ten can think is, _if I had been home, if I had been there, if, if, if_.

It takes everything within him for Lu Ten to smile, but he manages. 

“Hey, cousin. I heard you might be looking for someone to take a little trip with.”

**Author's Note:**

> title absolutely kidnapped from asofterworld; more specifically, this comic: http://asofterworld.com/index.php?id=862


End file.
